Disposal of used syringes, blood collection needles, and other so-called "sharps" presents a number of problems. For example, disposal containers (commonly known as sharps boxes) must themselves be disposable to prevent handling of sharps after their original disposal; they must be inexpensively positionable on-site, i.e. in each patient room or other location where sharps are used; they must be easily shippable; it must not be easily possible to remove syringes therefrom once they have been disposed of; aerosolation (i.e. the excaping of disease-carrying particles into the air by evaporation during disposal) must be minimized; overfilling of the container must be prevented; a full container must be irreversably lockable; the irreversible full-container lock should not be accidentally actuable; the container should provide a way to unscrew blood collection needles from their holder and discarding of them without touching them; and the full container must be conveniently handleable without danger of contaminating the handler.
Various types of sharps boxes have been used in the past to accomplish some of these objectives, but none have been fully satisfactory in all of the above respects.